Legal Manager-Customer Contracting

Overview

Lead a team of approximately 5 to 10 legal professionals who review and negotiate customer contracts across the international shipping business, primarily ocean transportation and international logistics services.

What you'll do

• Lead, coach and develop a team of approximately 5 to 10 legal professionals responsible for customer contract review and negotiation.
• Set clear priorities and expectations and ensure effective allocation of work across the team.
• Provide guidance and escalation support on complex negotiations and contractual issues while developing the team's ability to operate independently.
• Establish and maintain high standards for quality, consistency, responsiveness and commercial judgment.
• Help the team develop strong capabilities in the effective and responsible use of AI tools, including appropriate human review and validation of AI-supported work.
• Oversee the review, drafting and negotiation of customer contracts, primarily relating to ocean transportation and international logistics services.
• Personally support or lead negotiations involving complex, high-value, strategically important or escalated contracts.
• Ensure adherence to applicable contracting policies, templates, playbooks, approval processes and risk parameters.
• Work closely with commercial, product and other legal teams to resolve contractual issues and support timely conclusion of customer agreements.
• Manage a high-volume contracting environment, balancing turnaround expectations with appropriate legal quality and risk management.
• Continuously improve contracting processes, including workflows, templates, playbooks, escalation mechanisms and standard positions.
• Use data and operational insights to identify recurring negotiation issues, bottlenecks and opportunities for standardization or automation.

What you'll need

• A law degree and strong professional grounding in commercial and contract law.
• Fluent written and spoken English, with the ability to draft and negotiate sophisticated commercial agreements in English.
• Significant experience in commercial contract drafting, review and negotiation.
• Previous people-management experience, including direct responsibility for managing and developing professionals.
• Strong commercial judgment and the ability to distinguish material legal risks from issues that can reasonably be managed or accepted.
• Ability to operate effectively in a high-volume, fast-moving multinational environment, managing competing priorities without compromising critical legal standards and dealing with contracts or stakeholders across multiple jurisdictions.
• Demonstrated willingness and ability to use AI-enabled tools and technology as part of day-to-day legal work.
• A strong process and continuous-improvement mindset.

Nice to have

• Previous experience in the shipping, transportation or logistics industry, in particular: ocean carriers; freight forwarders and NVOCCs; and airlines or air-cargo businesses.
• Candidates from adjacent sectors may also be highly relevant where they have meaningful exposure to international transportation, trade or logistics, for example: marine insurance; commodities and international trading; conglomerates with substantial international logistics procurement activities; and general logistics and transportation businesses.
• Candidates without direct industry experience, but with strong commercial contracting expertise together with a credible understanding of the shipping/logistics business.

Details

• Location: Mumbai, India.
• Works across multiple jurisdictions, including the United States and Europe.